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Sisters of Silence
‘We are mute but not without power, we are silent but not without resolve, we are untouchable but not without courage, we are sisters and have but one father, we are seekers and we shall find our prey, we are warriors and woe to those we oppose, the Emperor's mark is on our brow, all who deal with the warp must beware, His Judgement and vengeance is ours to deliver!’ - Motto of the Sisters of Silence The Sisters of Silence were an Imperial order of female witchseekers, whom during the Great Crusade era, hunted, ferreted out and killed rogue psykers that presented terrible danger to the citizens of the Imperium of Mankind. Also known as the Silent Sisterhood, they were the militant army of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica and were referred to internally as the Departmento Investigates. Background Of all the Emperor’s servants the Sisters of Silence were perhaps the most mysterious of all. These warrior-investigators were tasked with the seeking and apprehension of untrained psykers. The Sisters operated the Telepathica’s infamous Black Ships, which ranged the galaxy in search of rogue psykers to capture or expunge, seeking to collect and carry them back to Terra where they would be tested and their eventual fate decided. Though few in number, the Sisters of Silence commanded great respect within the Imperium and most servants of the Emperor regarded them with some awe. Few would willingly stand in their way or interfere with their activities. Although human, the Sisters of Silence were well-trained warriors and allied to unusual anti-psyker abilities which made them dangerous opponents to any enemy of Mankind that they might encounter. For unlike other living beings, these unspeaking women were silent not just in the material world, but also in the ephemeral realm of the mind. There were names for them: untouchables, pariahs, blanks. All of the members of their order were non-psychic, for they bore the pariah gene which made them immune to psychic assault and telepathy. These untouchables had the innate ability to disrupt psychic abilities. Their mere presence was intolerable to a psyker, for they become visibly uncomfortable in their company. Close proximity or intimate contact can even cause a psyker great pain. This made it ideal for the Sisters to perform the role of identifying psykers secretly hidden amongst normal human populations as well as discovering those unaware of their own innate abilities. The Sisters were also authorized to destroy any psykers they deemed too dangerous to capture and send back to Terra for testing. In their studies, Sisters of Silence read many of the great texts in the towering stacks of the libraria in the Somnus Citadel, from the earliest volumes of the Psykana Occultis to the Voiceless Judgements of Melaena Verdthand. In these tomes of psychic research and lore, the young sisters-in-waiting learned much of the witch. They came to believe that faith in sword and bolter and silence were but one half of a sister’s armoury, that knowledge of their quarry carried equal weight. In this, they have read much of the strangest extremes of psykerkind, learning the ferret them out, combat them and if need be, execute them with extreme prejudice. Oath of Tranquility Full-fledged Sisters each swear an oath of silence as a mark of fealty to the Emperor and their sacred mission. No Sister may utter a word, unto death, once she gives the Oath of Tranquility. Only the Sisterhood, who brought with them the gift of Silence, had the strength to hold the witches in check. This duty they marked with their vow never to speak. A novice Sister who has yet to take the vow is allowed to converse normally, though they are also trained in the use of the various forms of gestural signing incorporated by their order. Sisters-in-waiting serve their order when communication is needed with outsiders, acting as interpreters between the senior ranking Sisters and other Imperial servants of the Imperium. Those Sisters that take the Oath of Tranquility communicate exclusively through the use of the various forms of sign-language, similar to Adeptus Astartes battle-sign, and would not willingly break this most sacred of oaths. As was their vow in the Emperor’s service, the women never spoke, even when speared by projectile rounds or struck by fire or edged weapons. Sign-Language Forms *'ThoughtMark' - ThoughtMark, one of the symbolic sign languages employed by the Silent Sisterhood. Small in scale, full of delicate gestures of finger and thumb, it served to convey concepts of great subtlety or intricate nature. It was far more graceful than the large, sharp motions of BattleMark. *'BattleMark' – BattleMark is the command language used by the Sisters to communicate on the field of conflict, which is far more complex and nuanced. The gestures used to communicate BattleMarks with one another are large, sharp motions that enable a person to communicate in line of sight and can be seen from further away. This gestural language is similar to Astartes battle-sign. *'Orskode' – Sisterhood transmissions sent to locales beyond line-of-sight were despatched not with words but in an ancient machine-readable variant of ThoughtMark known as Orskode, a mechanical rattle of clicking that to untrained ears would resemble the sounds of turning cogwheels. Homeworld The Sisters of Silence primary base of operations was the Somnus Citadel on Luna. Notable Campaigns *'Jorgall Persecution (Unknown.M31)' – A cadre of Sisters with a deputation of the Silent Sisterhood, on the orders of the Sigillite himself, were dispatched to aid the XIV Legion – Death Guard in an attack on the xenos known as the Jorgall. During the ensuing battle, the Sisters managed to wound a mutant Jorgall psyker and capture it to be transported back to Terra. *'Scouring of Prospero (Unknown.M31)' – The Sisters most successful campaign during this era occurred during the assault on the Thousand Sons homeworld of Prospero after their Primarch Magnus was found guilty of violating the edicts of the Council of Nikaea. The Sisters of Silence deployed in support of the Space Wolves Legion and a contingent of Legio Custodes, provided the main line of defence against the psychic abilities of the Thousand Sons Legion. *'Siege of Terra (Unknown.M31)' – The Silent Sisterhood provided a stalwart defence of the Imperial Palace during the Siege of Terra. They were also instrumental in the defence of the Imperial Webway located in the subterranean levels of the Imperial Palace against a massive daemonic incursion. Organisation The Sisters of Silence were organised into multiple warrior cadres that were readily identifiable by their corresponding names (Vigilator, Prosecutor, Excrutiator, Prosecutor, Witchseeker ect.) and their different armour schemes. Rank Structure *'Sister-in-waiting' – A potential aspirant that performs all the menial tasks within their order and waits on the senior ranking sisters. Since they have not undertaken the Oath of Tranquility they often act as interpreters for the senior sisters when dealing with outsiders. *'Novice-Sister' – An aspirant that has not yet taken the Oath of Tranquility. *'Null Maiden' – A full-fledged sister that has taken the Oath of Tranquility. *'Vigilator' – An unspecified rank which often accompanies an Oblivion Knight on a mission. *'Oblivion Knight' - Senior ranking Sisters who lead Witchseekers on their various missions on behalf of the Emperor. *'Excrutiatus' - Sisters clad in thick, buckle-studded coats of red-leather. These sisters have no eyes, for in their place they have two heavy lenses or ruby- coloured implants in place of their natural eyes. It is said to attain this esteemed rank a Sister must personally burn 100 witches. *'Witchseeker Pursuivant' – Senior-ranking sister which ranks above that of Oblivion Knight. *'Sister-Commander' – The senior-most rank and overall commander of the Sisters of Silence. Notable Sisters of Silence *'Sister-Commander Jenetia Krole' - Krole, mistress of the Raptor Guard and one of the Emperor’s personal battle confidantes, was the highest-ranking Sister alive. *'Sister-Senior Celia Harroda' – Sister Celia was the Witchseeker Pursuivant, and heroine of the Sisters of Silence during the Siege of Terra, when there was a massive daemonic incursion within the Imperial Webway within the subterranean levels of the Imperial Palace. On one occasion a mighty Bloodthirster, greatest of the daemons of Khorne, fought its way through the Imperial defenders and to the gate itself. Only the last minute intervention of Sister Celia Harroda of the Sisters of Silence was able to stop the beast from crashing through the gate and into the Imperial Palace dungeons. Sister Celia confronted the huge daemon, her presence chilling the air around it and stifling its otherworldly power, and silently she dispatched the monster with swift strokes from her blade of frost. The effort utterly exhausted her and with the final, banishing stroke of her sword she collapsed upon the threshold between the warp and real space never to breathe again. *'Sister Emrilia Herkaaze' – A fellow Oblivion Knight. Alongside Amendera Kendel, Sister Herkaaze was drawn to the notice of the Sisters of Silence as children. Each of them was recruited from worlds in the Belladone Reach, Kendel and Herkaaze had shared a vague kinship throughout their aspirant trials, but as they had grown into full Sisterhood, the women’s early friendship soured. Years later, they were bitter rivals, each nursing antipathy for the other. How this bitter enmity began is not truly known, but one story, told to novices by other novices, said that the women had once fought with a fire-witch on Sheol Trinus; Herkaaze, unwilling to fall back before a powerful enemy and regroup, had been struck by burning debris and later turned the blame to Kendel for refusing to support her. Looking at Sister Emrilia’s old wounds, one might have wondered if there might have been some truth in it. *'Sister Amendera Kendel' – At the outset of the Horus Heresy, Amendera Kendel was thirty standard solar years and like her fellow Sisters, cut an impressive figure; lithe and poised, clad in a shimmering snakeskin over-suit of dense chainmail and a sweep of golden armour plate that resembled a bodice. She wore her purple-black coloured hair in a topknot from a seamless scalp, bare but for a blood-red aquila tattoo. Sister Kendel was an Oblivion Knight and commanded the Black Ship Aeria Gloris. During the Great Crusade Sister Kendel was a part of a cadre of Sisters sent on the orders of Malcador the Sigillite to deploy alongside the Death Guard XIV Legion in the prosecution of the xenos known as the Jorgall for daring to venture into human space. The Sisters proved instrumental in attacking and wounding a mutant Jorgall psyker. They then captured the wounded creature for transport back to Terra. Sister Kendel then moved on to perform other duties. After the opening shots of the Horus Heresy occurred on Istvaan III, Sister Kendel volunteered to guard Death Guard Captain Nathaniel Garro and the survivors of the Eisenstein at the Somnus Citadel on Luna. She was later forced to lead her fellow Sisters into battle with the corrupted Death Guard Astartes, Solun Decius who had finally given into the contagion inflicted upon him by the reanimated corpse aboard the Eisenstein. His corrupted body had mutated in to a daemonic entity known as the Lord of the Flies. After defeating this significant moral threat, Sister Kendel, Captain Garro and Captain Iacton Qruze of the Sons of Horus were confronted by Malcador the Sigillite. He informed them of his intentions to form a new organisation which would need to utilise ‘men and women of an inquisitive nature’ and offered them a place within this new organisation. Following the Horus Heresy, Amendera Kendel’s fate remains unknown. *'Sister Thessaly Nortor' – An Oblivion Knight, Sister Nortor possessed a taut, scar-sharpened face which was usually drawn in a scowl. The second-in-command of the Storm Dagger cadre had made no secret of her disdainful opinions of the Warmaster’s mutiny. Sister Nortor’s breath would rasp quietly through the mechanical apparatus at her neck; almost three-quarters of Nortor’s throat had been replaced with a mechanical augment. Made of a polished silver-steel, her artificial implant served the function of flesh destroyed during an engagement against the Jorgalli, inside one of the xenos’s bottle-worlds. As well as her neck, much of the Null Maiden’s lungs were also synthetic proxies assembled by the Sisterhood’s biologians. Many of her fellow Sisters were privately envious of the dour Sister Thessaly; Nortor’s larynx had been lost to the acidic bite of the bottle-world’s alien atmosphere, and she had refused to allow her augmentation to be fitted with an artificial replacement. The woman was as silent a Sister as was humanly possible. Equipment The Sisters were equipped with a variety of weaponry and devices specifically designed to aid in the nullification and capture of psykers. It was difficult to tell these warrior women apart from one another. They wore a lighter form of power armour polished to a glittering sheen, unadorned by any brash sigils or fluttering oath papers like the warriors of the Astartes. Their faces were hidden behind hawkish gold helmets equipped with breather gear that let the unmodified Sisterhood manage the toxic air of the hostile worlds. As the militant arm of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, the Silent Sisterhood operated the Black Ships that travelled to the myriad worlds of the Imperium to collect psykers and carry them back to Terra to be processed by their parent organisation. Each of the Black Ships had a small contingent of the Silent Sisterhood aboard. These Black Ships moved like a piece of the void. Whereas conventional vessels of the Imperial fleets ran with pennants and signal lamps to illuminate the lengths of their hulls, these infamous vessels came in darkness, arriving out of the interstellar deeps as an ocean predator might slip to the surface of a blackened ocean. Where the ships of the Astartes are swords against the enemies of Terra, the Black Ships are like a hammer of witches. As with every starship in service with the Divisio Astra Telepathica, these space faring vessels were equipped with aphonoria; great spaces within their hulls where sound-deadening technologies rendered the closest equivalent to absolute quiet. To break this utter silence was viewed as an obscenity, a defacement of their most sacred of oaths. Fate of the Sisters of Silence The fate that befell the Sisters of Silence following the Horus Heresy is unknown. It is not known whether or not they were utterly annihilated in the valiant defence of the Emperor’s secret Imperial Webway project or if they were disbanded and incorporated into the ranks of the fledgling organisation of the Inquisition. In modern canon, there is no known reference to the Silent Sisterhood still operating within the 41st Millennium nor is there any reference to their destruction or disbandment. Sources *''Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'' (Background Book) *''Flight of the Eisenstein'' (Novel) by James Swallow *''Tales of Heresy'' - ‘The Voice’ by James Swallow Category:S Category:S